Arran Brand Whisky Scotch Lagg Lochranza

Harold J. Currie, former managing director of Seagram, began building the distillery in 1991. The first whisky was produced on June 29, 1995, and the official opening of the Arran Distillery took place in 1997 by the Queen. Since 2001, the whisky has been regularly available. This meant that Arran had a distillery again after more than 150 years: from 1825 to 1837, the island was home to the Lagg Distillery founded by Matthew Speirs. After the distillery's capacities were quickly exhausted, work began in 2016 on a second whisky distillery on Arran. This was built in Lagg on the south coast of the island, started operations in 2019, and carries the historic name Lagg Distillery. Both are operated by the Isle of Arran Distillers. To distinguish them, the first distillery on Arran was renamed Lochranza. Production The water for the distillery, which belongs to the Highlands/Islands region, comes from Loch na Davie. The used, unpeated malt comes from Bairds Malt Ltd. from their maltings in Pencaitland. It has a mash tun made of stainless steel, four wash backs (each 15,000 l), three of which are made of Douglas fir and one of pine wood, two wash stills (each 7,100 l) and two spirit stills (each 4,300 l), which are heated with steam. The new production volume is now 1,200,000 liters per year. Products The distillery offers a wide variety of bottlings; especially single cask bottlings at cask strength – often matured in special casks (e.g., Port, Sherry, Madeira, Calvados, Cognac, Brandy, Rum, Champagne, Marsala, or red wine) – are abundant. The ten-year-old with 46% vol., available since October 2005, will gradually replace its predecessor, the Non Chill Filtered also with 46% vol., and the chill-filtered original bottlings with 40% and 43% vol. will also gradually disappear from the market. Since December 8, 2010, a smoky malt called "Machrie Moor" was also offered. After the opening of Lagg, the Machrie Moor was discontinued; only unpeated whiskies are to be produced in Lochranza, while peated ones are made in Lagg. Contrary to the original plan, the products from Lochranza continue to be marketed under the name Arran, with a small addition on the bottles indicating production in Lochranza.